Swimming anyone?

["Susan Brehm" <RockingB@worldnet.att.net>]

I'm starting to get my feet wet in the endurance
experience -- and I love it!  Prior to January of this year
I probably hadn't been on 10 long trail rides in my whole
life.  I was busy with arena riding, which I enjoyed
immensely.  But back to riding after a 3 year break I
decided to try something new.  What was I thinking all those
years???

Last weekend I went to a 10 mile benefit ride in Middleburg,
VA.  It was my first time camping (port-a-potties, sleeping
in the back of my pick-up, sponge bath in the trailer with a
bucket of cold water) with my horse Charlie (he was
wonderful) and my first time with him in a new area with no
other horses from his barn (again, he was wonderful--he
doesn't care whose tail he follows as long as it's equine!).
Also, my first trail ride with ribbon markers and map.  We
burned up the trail doing the 10 miles in a blazing 2 hours
and 15 minutes -- OK, at that rate we could just barely
squeak out 25 in the 6 hour limit!  But I finished with a
happy, alert horse who was ready to go on.

Yesterday I hauled to a friend's house for a training ride.
We went slow, covering about 8-10 miles in 4 hours.  Halfway
through the ride we stopped in a creek to let the horses
drink.  Charlie wasn't drinking much but likes to play in
the water.  As we stood there I suddenly felt his rear end
sinking and my friend yelled "Kick him -- he's going
down!!".  In my euphoric stupor (from enjoying the scenery)
I just sat there not understanding.  I felt his front end
sort of oozing down, like he was sinking in mud.  Too late I
gave a half-hearted kick and clucked to him, then he was on
his side and I was sitting in the creek.  He got right back
up as soon as I was off (is this a hint?).  I sloshed out of
the water and when I realized what he had done I laughed so
hard I couldn't get back on for a minute.  We continued our
ride and by the time we got back my pants were dry.  My
shoes however, are still soggy.

Thanks to all you RideCampers out there.  Through hearing of
your experiences I'm finally learning that it's OK for my
horse to be a horse and do horsey things.  I'm not scared
anymore and I'm really beginning to enjoy Charlie's little
quirks, he's quite entertaining.  And isn't trail riding
great?  Me and my horse, finally going somewhere.  Awesome.

SusanB


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